


Parents Are Fools

by BlueOranges



Category: Splatoon
Genre: Angst, Angst and Feels, How Do I Tag, I Don't Even Know, I'm Bad At Tagging, I'm Sorry, M/M, Sad with a Happy Ending, emperor wishes his parents were good, i wrote this after sobbing my eyes out lol, parents are fools, prince is a helpful listener
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-24
Updated: 2020-11-24
Packaged: 2021-03-10 02:01:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,119
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27695954
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BlueOranges/pseuds/BlueOranges
Summary: Prince and Emperor finally tell Rider what's been bothering Emperor
Relationships: Emperor/Rider (Splatoon)
Kudos: 21





	Parents Are Fools

**Author's Note:**

> I didn't wanna write this. I _really_ didn't, but I don't know I just needed to blurt out words onto the screen. It's been eating me away for a very long time.
> 
> Casually projecting this issue onto Emperor because wooo latinx parents are... something else man.
> 
> Mask and Vintage: join us, we have trauma
> 
> Emperor: ...fuck...
> 
> anyways-

Emperor sat on the edge of his bed with his head in his hands. It’s been eating away at him for a while, he just didn’t know why it was taking chunks out of him now. Maybe it was the marriage talk from a while ago that started it? He didn’t know. He just wanted it to go away. His ear twitched as he heard a knock at the door and looked up. Prince stood at the entrance with a worried look.

“I… I heard you crying again…”

Letting out a breath he didn’t even know he was holding in, Emperor nodded solemnly and laid on his bed while the sunshine inkling closed the door behind him. Prince had to admit, his brother looked like shit. His glow was dimmed heavily and his eyes were swollen and puffy. It wasn’t a usual sight for the king to be like this.

“Were you thinking about… it again…?”

Emperor covered his face again.

“Why does dad have to be the way he is? Why can’t he just… be… a good person…?”

Prince stayed quiet as he messed with the ear of his plush rabbit, waiting for his brother to continue with his ramble.

“I at least wanted some form of connection with him! And now that he’s acting this way I can’t even give him a chance! At the time I didn’t think much of the rule and zapfish above, I even defended it! It was… internalized in me... I’m such an awful squid.”

“But brother, you changed… you know it’s wrong now, no matter who says it. Not everyone is perfect, you know that now too.”

“To call myself a king with that line of thinking… how dare I even do that?”

“You looked up to father and that led you to be influenced into shielding yourself from his wrong doings. In a sense, you looked at him with rose colored glasses to avoid all the red flags.”

Emperor looked to his nightstand and put a hand on the picture frame with him and Rider. The yellow-green inkling made him so happy, he’d do anything for him. Emperor’s frown deepened. Everything except face his father. Emperor held the frame close to him and looked at his brother.

“How am I supposed to tell Rider?”

“Tell me what?”

The king’s color drained from his face as he quickly sat up in his bed. There was his boyfriend, climbing in from his window.

“Rider. How much did you hear…?”

“Enough to know you’re trying to figure out you’re supposed to tell me something. Hey, Prince.”

Prince waved shyly. Now, Rider wasn’t stupid. He could sense the depressing atmosphere from a mile away and his glow squid boyfriend has never been this dim, well, around him Emperor wasn’t. Rider knew this was just foreshadowing bad news, and the face Prince was making at his stuffed animal definitely didn’t put him at ease. He shut the window to avoid bringing in a draft.

“What’s up, Emp?”

The gold inkling avoided his gaze and walked out of the room, whispering a “I’m sorry” before closing the door. This startled the dynamo user, hell it even startled Prince.

“Prince… what’s going on?”

“...you best sit down Mr. Rider.”

Emperor hugged himself all the way to his secret hiding place he used when he was Prince’s age. It was a small space inside of a closet in the mansion and even though it was a tight fit due to his height now, he still managed. Of course Emperor felt horrible for leaving like that, but it’d mentally tear him apart to tell his boyfriend why he constantly has to hide himself so Emperor’s father didn’t see him. It was unfair to Rider.

“I’m making this all about me, aren’t I…? I’m over here hiding like a coward because of something that doesn’t affect my mental stability in any way instead of giving Rider the explanation he deserves. I’m the king for crying out loud. I just… don’t want him to be hurt… the great zapfish knows he’s already been through too much and adding this… it’s too much for anyone… I-”

“Emperor? I… Prince… told me…”

The king bared his teeth and sat against the door. It hurt to move, but it didn’t matter. He heard Rider do the same.

“You know… I kinda assumed that you were ashamed of me and that’s why you hid me from your parents… media… everything except for our friends…”

“Rider… I was never ashamed of you… I could never be ashamed of you…”  
Rider let out a pained chuckle.

“I know that now… I think… deep down, I always knew that this was the reason. The first time you mysteriously disappeared from my side when the press first came, we’ve never had public dates. The whole time I stuck myself in a fantasy because I wanted to believe that this wasn’t the reason.”

“I’m so sorry…”

“Don’t be. It’s not your fault your father thinks in a backwards way or he said that specific thing to you. It’s the life I’ve been forced to live for about as long as I can remember, the first time I realized I was treated differently than most. So, society is to blame haha…”

“I wanted to keep this away from you because I didn’t want you to be hurt by it and well… it didn’t exactly work out, huh?”

“Not really.”

It was a small silence before both parties let out pained laughs and Emperor knocked on the door.

“Who’s there?”

“Move it’s cramped in here.”

“Move it’s cramped in here, who?”

“Rider.”

“Fine, fine.”

The king emerged from the crawl space and locked eyes with Rider, who looked at him with a sort of defeated expression. Both of them sat against the closet’s wall and the shorter inkling leaned on the other.

“Is this the reason marriage makes you uncomfortable?”

“Well, the fact I’ve never seen a latinx marriage turn out to be healthy is still a huge factor in it, but yeah, this is also one. I wanted at least one of our parents to be there, but none of them will. I didn’t want to explain that to you because I had a feeling you’d think that even if your parents weren’t there, mine would be.”

Rider shrugged.

“It would’ve been nice, but we both already knew your parents deserve death.”

Emperor chuckled as he played with his lover’s tentacles.

“Pfft- yeah…parents are fools.”

The couple stayed there for a while, holding hands and just enjoying the other's presence. Even though they didn’t have their parents to love them, they still had each other.

And that's all that matters.

**Author's Note:**

> Feel free to guess what this thing revolves around, but I won't confirm nor deny anything so... yeah


End file.
